TRUST was the greatest victim of the past couple of weeks in the North, according to Mr Eddie McGrady MP of the SDLP. He described the Northern Secretary's planned inquiry into marches as a "fig leaf".

He called for a full, public, judicial review with an international dimension. There was a total lack of trust within the nationalist community of the British government and the RUC.

The review should look at how the decisions on marches were made and what persons and powers were involved in those decisions. Mr McGrady, with his party colleague, Dr Alasdair McDonnell, was addressing the Northern Ireland sub committee of the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs in Dublin.

Citing the loyalist blockades around the North during the Drumcree confrontation, Mr McGrady said it was his understanding that the RUC was given "specific operational instructions not to approach the barricades" so that incidents would not spread further. Senator Sam McAughtry asked what exactly the SDLP wanted to see happen if the RUC did not take the decision to allow the Drumcree march through. He believed the logical conclusion was that "lead bullets" would have flown and there could have been "a succession of bloody Sundays" across the North.

Mr McGrady did not believe that would have been the outcome. Most of the loyalist barricades could have been removed quietly in the early stages. Senator McAughtry said he lived in a town which was 97.5 per cent Protestant and for every small barricade lifted another one would have been established.

On the Apprentice Boys parade in Derry on August 10th, Mr McGrady said: "We are not going to have a resolution to the problem if each side seeks total victory. The vanquished will be very angry.